Kirby Star Allies Wiki – Everything You Need To Know About The Game

Kirby Star Allies is the next entry in the long running Kirby series, following from Kirby: Planet Robobot on the Nintendo 3DS, and is the first entry on the Nintendo Switch. Kirby Star Allies is very similar to those 3DS titles, but will take advantage of the higher visual fidelity and processing power of the Nintendo Switch to introduce 4-player co-op and better looking graphics. Popular mechanics from past titles such as Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards are revisited with fresh ideas. The game launches exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on March 16, 2018.

Development

Nintendo is notoriously tight lipped about the development of their games, but we do have a few tidbits about the development of Kirby Star Allies. The title is being developed by longtime Kirby developers, HAL Laboratory, and was originally teased simply as ‘Kirby’ during Nintendo’s E3 Showcase 2017, alongside ‘Yoshi’.

While not outright confirmed, many elements of Kirby Star Allies are reminiscent of old gameplay shown for a previously planned Kirby title on the Nintendo Gamecube. That footage showed off elements more reminiscent of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards with multiple camera angles, but also allowed Kirby to recruit up to three enemies to fight alongside him. The Nintendo Gamecube game would eventually be reworked into the Wii title, Kirby’s Return To Dreamland, but the Friends Mechanic would not appear until Star Allies.

In a Nintendo Direct presentation that took place in September 2017, the final title of the game was announced and the March 16, 2018 release would be revealed in January 2018. This is the first Kirby title to have a world-wide simultaneous launch.

Story

Kirby is generally not the heaviest series on story, however there is a plot in all games. This time, Dark Hearts rain down on Planet Popstar, which upon contact turn a creature evil. However when one of the hearts touches Kirby, instead of making him evil, Kirby gains the ability to throw a heart to befriend whomever it touches.

Following this, Kirby notices large amounts of food being taken up to Castle Dedede, and the strange, dark clouds building up around the King’s castle. Kirby immediately sets out, curious about what’s happening in Dream Land.

Gameplay

Much like the previous two 3DS entries, Kirby Star Allies is a 2.5D Platformer, having Kirby and friends move on a 2D axis along a 3D environment. Players control either Kirby or one of his Friends through these stages, using the abilities of Kirby or their copy ability friend to advance.

Kirby maintains his signature moves of inhale, Star Spit, Slide attack, flying and shooting air, while also introducing the Heart Throw. Heart Throw allows Kirby to take an enemy he encounters on the field and make it into his ally “Friend”, who will then play alongside him much like the Helpers from Kirby Super Star. Kirby can have up to three friends alongside him for a total of four players. With a little help from his friends, Kirby can take advantage of Friend Abilities, where the ability of Kirby and his friends is combined into something completely new, similar to the dual-abilities that Kirby would use in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. These are executed simply by holding up and being attacked by the second ability.

In Kirby Star Allies, he gains several completely new copy abilities. Pole gives Kirby a “Journey to the West” style pole with which to smack around foes. Festival shows a short dance animation but largely works like other screen nuke abilities such as Crash. Spider allows Kirby to trap enemies in webs and wrap them in cocoons. Artist gives Kirby a special paintbrush which he can use to flick paint or create his own drawings which will come to life to attack for him.

The game will also, in Kirby tradition, feature sub games, which can also support multiple players. Chop Champs uses the motion control of the Joycons to compete to chop wood, while the timing based Star Slam Heroes sees players time inputs to hit a meteor the farthest. Other sub modes will likely be unlocked during the game.

The game is known to include some sort of Amiibo compatibility.

Characters

The Kirby series generally tries to keep things as light as possible, so while there are over 40 enemies to speak of, 24 of which will be able to act as Friends within the game, there’s only so much to say about them. We will run down the central few, before going broad with the playable friends.

Kirby is the tuff pink puff of Planet Popstar, who has saved the world many times over in many different ways. Not much seems to phase Kirby, whether that’s because he’s so innocent and adorable that he doesn’t understand some of the things he’s fought, or because he’s just that hardcore, Kirby always keeps his smile. He’s very flexible in combat, able to absorb his enemies and use their own abilities against them.

King Dedede has joined Kirby in a few previous adventures as a friend, but the two have tussled from time to time. While most of the time he’s more of a lovable oaf who’s just a little bit selfish, this time it seems as though he’s under the influence of a Dark Heart.

Meta Knight is confirmed to appear in Kirby Star Allies, and is under the influence of a Dark Heart himself, which means he’ll be a boss fight at some point in the game. The origins of the mysterious swordsman are still unknown, though he’s a fierce fighter who wields the Galaxia Sword with a stunning skill. Even through the influence of the Dark Heart, he still chivalrously gives Kirby a sword before the dual.

While their specific allegiance or origin has not been discussed, we’ve also seen three female general characters. Of these three Mage Generals, we only have an official name for Francisca, the Mage Generals’ Snow Flower. Her command over the ice element can easily put Kirby out cold. The Red Mage is only known by her Japanese name, Fran-Rouge so far, and she commands Fire. There is a third Yellow general with no current information.